The Ark
285 Chemin de Farrellton,
Denholm, QC
J0X 2C0, Canada
2025 Grand (Trial) Re-Opening!
We're looking for 5, 4 couples for 2025
Discover The Ark: "The BEST Wedding Ever!"
Just 45 minutes from downtown Ottawa and nestled in the heart of the Gatineau Hills, we have the perfect outdoor wedding and indoor reception setting.... for the right people.
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The Ark's "Origin Story"
The "OG" wedding
The first wedding ever hosted at The Ark was October 9th, 2004 when I married my lovely bride Monique.
At that time, the Ark didn't have any indoor plumbing and electricity was provided by the generator. The north wall indoors was a 20' long blue plywood climbing wall covered in burgundy sheer material.
Yet, as each guest left, they all commented how ours was "the best wedding ever"!
These are actually print photos taken with cardboard box cameras! I took pictures of the photos with my phone to upload them here.
The following years
With the success of our wedding, we decided to host weddings commercially. Of course we installed indoor plumbing and an off-grid solar system so we didn't require a generator for power.
But the ceiling wasn't finished and all the pipes and wires and cobwebs were in plain site. We had a bit more grass, but minimal gardens. And we only had one set of white, plastic, garden chairs so when the wedding ceremony was over, guests would carry their chairs indoors to their table.
When those guests left, they all commented on how that wedding was "the best wedding ever"!
The Ark's More Recent Years
Outdoor Updates
Over the years, I've done more landscaping and Monique has added more flower gardens.
Last year, one bride said how she loved the outdoor, rustic feel of The Ark, but she didn't like our tried and tested white, outdoor plastic chairs.
So, because I stand by my "your wedding, your way" motto, I headed into the woods, cut down two monstrous hemlock trees, dragged the logs back to my sawmill and made a dozen live edge benches.
I'm not saying I'll go that far for every wedding here, but if I help realize your dream wedding, I'll do my best.
Our new benches to replace the white plastic chairs alongside
the new gardens and bricked bride and groom area.
Indoor Updates
Indoors, we now have pine tongue and groove ceilings and pine encased posts. We now have dedicated padded steel chairs for dining. The concrete floor has been stained. The cheap plastic 8x10 picture frames, broken paddles and frisbees are gone. Replaced by antique snowshoes and museum worthy cedar canvas canoes and Olympic kayaks. There is also new lighting.
It's not "fancy", but if you're a fan of natural wood and simplicity, you're going to love the vibe we have going on here.
And of course, you're welcome to decorate any way you choose, as long as you follow our one simple rule... "leave it like you found it".
Three months after our wedding we are still hearing friends rave about “The Best Wedding Ever!” Thank you so much for everything! We were able to have our dream wedding and actually afford it thanks to your beautiful and unique venue! Everyone kept asking us how we found such an amazing venue that was “so us”. Mike, you were a wonderful officiant and made our ceremony touching, light-hearted, and personal to us as a couple. We cannot express how great it is to still hear from friends that the canoe full of beer was the “coolest way to serve drinks at a wedding ever.” You made our wedding as stress free as possible with being able to set up the day before and take down the day after. Thank you for making our wedding the best day of our lives and putting up with our crazy friends! We feel kind of bad that every other wedding we ever go to now won’t come close to as awesome and fun and laidback as ours. We cannot recommend the Ark enough!
- Dave and Jess
The 5 Top Reasons to Get Married at The Ark
Reason #1 - "Your Wedding, Your Way"
The first thing I ask a couple when the come to tour The Ark is "what does your dream wedding look like to you?"
From there, I do whatever I can (reasonably) do to make that dream a reality.
As previously mentioned, despite hosting 100 weddings here with our white plastic garden chairs, when one bride said she'd prefer wooden benches, I spent close to a week building them for her.
Now I can't commit to that degree of effort with every bride, but seriously, don't expect that degree of service from any other type of business, anywhere, ever.
Reason #2 - "Only one wedding per weekend"
We only host one wedding here per weekend (and only 5 weddings in 2025). This means you're able to come on Friday and decorate, set up your bar, and run through the ceremony.
Then, you're free to come back on Sunday to find the place pretty much cleaned up with all your belongings neatly stacked on a table by the door.
No stress set-up and cleanup makes for a much more enjoyable wedding day, where all you have to worry about is having fun!
If you were planning on a 4pm ceremony, but there are intermittent showers, it's not a problem, just wait until the sky is clear.
And when it comes to photos, you won't have to worry about fighting other parties for the best spots!5
Reason #3 - "You choose your own caterer"
The food (and drinks) are where most venues make their money.
They provide the menu and you choose from their limited options and have no choice but to pay what they demand.
We don't provide food at The Ark. You're free to bring the caterer of your choice. We highly recommend Bytown Catering, but it's up to you.
We've had some killer food trucks here and a couple of great potlucks and pig roasts as well.
You have 100% freedom with the food you provide your guests and with how much you want to spend.
Reason #4 -You Bring Your Own Bar
The bar.... now that's where they really get you at the other venues. Beer and mixed drinks are $6 - $8 (plus tip), a bottle of wine is $35, and a Coke can run you $3!
But at The Ark, all you need is a $30 "Reunion Permit" and you're welcome to bring Costco 55 beer octagons, $20 60-ounce liquor bottles from New York, or your own home-made beer and/or wine.
How many drinks do you think your average guest will consume from 3pm to midnight?
I actually recommend offering a "toonie-bar", cuz you can do that too! Most guests will drop $20 for 10 tickets. They'll "buy rounds" for their friends and won't mind a bit. And you'll most likely make a couple of bucks on the bar and still go home with a few bottles of wine and a case or 2 of beer!
Reason #5 -The "Best Wedding Ever" for the Best Price Ever
The most common comments we hear from our guests are a) how did they find this place, b) this is the best wedding ever, and c) I wish we would have known about this place for our wedding!
With the freedom you have to make your Ark wedding your own, you can't NOT have an amazing time. Ark weddings are not cookie-cutter weddings that will soon be forgotten.
And having the freedom to choose your own caterer and bring your own bar means you'll save thousands of dollars (which I'm sure you'd rather use to save up for a home or honeymoon).
We also don't nickel and dime you. The price I quote you, is the price you pay. I don't have hidden clean-up fees, security fees, music fees, "service" fees....
I once priced Ottawa's "#1 Wedding Venue" online, but when a couple shared their actual quote with me, it was DOUBLE what the online estimate was. The CEO of that venue sent me an email ordering me to cease my online comparisons with them!
The 5 Top Reasons NOT to Get Married at The Ark
Reason #1 - "We're about 10 minutes further away."
According to Google Maps, The Ark is 55.7km from Ottawa.
Whereas Stathmere is only 39.6, Orchard View is 35.2, le Belvedere 43km and Bean Town Ranch is 57.2km.
So, with the exception of Bean Town which is farther, you can save 10-15 minutes of driving, but those venues will cost you about $10,000 to $25,000 more.
The last 6km of driving are on a well-maintained ("school bus") gravel road, that I travel on my Honda Goldwing motorcycle all summer long. But if you prefer to stick to paved roads, then the Ark isn't for you.
Of course, for those who can drive on gravel, they love seeing the hay in the open fields, the coloured escarpment, and wildlife as they drive up.
Reason #2 - "We Want a "Westin Experience"
First and foremost, The Ark is our home. Which means Ark weddings feel more like a house-party and less like a formal conference room wedding. There are pros and cons to that.
The cons are that if you look beside the house you'll see an above ground swimming pool and if you look in the woods you'll see a canoe-trailer full of canoes. But you'll be hard pressed to capture either of them in the background of a photo.
The pros are that we don't offer "cookie-cutter" weddings. You get to make it your own. Your own caterer. Your own bar. Your own decorations.... and since we only have one wedding per weekend, you won't be competing with any other couples for the best photo ops.
If you want a traditional, formal wedding venue, The Ark isn't the place for you.
Reason #3 - "If your guests can't sit on plastic chairs, they should sit at another venue"
Okay, plastic chairs are no longer an issue here at The Ark. As I said above, last year I crafted some amazing live-edge hemlock benches.
But it's not about the chairs. It's the mindset I'm more concerned with. If you consider you and your guests too good for plastic chairs, then I support you 100%. But The Ark isn't about the chairs or the lighting. The Ark is about family, friends and the celebration of love.
So, if your family and friends are the type of people who can't enjoy themselves sitting on a plastic garden chair, then they're not going to like it here (even if we don't have plastic chairs anymore)!
Reason #4 - "If a lack of edible flowers causes a meltdown.. stay away!"
We had a vegan wedding here in 2022 where the bride assured me how chill and relaxed they were. But when the salad arrived from their caterer with no edible flowers, it was like pig's blood had fallen from the ceiling on the bride.
That lack of edible flowers pretty much ruined the wedding for the bride (the guests couldn't have cared less and still told me it was "the best wedding ever").
Here's the thing, not everything will go perfectly on your wedding day, but with the right attitude, you can still have the perfect wedding. In this case, the guests wouldn't even have known about the missing flowers if the bride didn't make a big deal about it.
So, if you're not somebody who can roll with and enjoy what the day throws at you, The Ark isn't right for you.
(If we do meet, make sure to ask me about how the bus failed to pick up my bride in Wakefield and how, thanks to my groomsman ignoring me, I had to siphon gasoline from Jeep part way through my reception... and I still had THE BEST WEDDING EVER)
Reason #5 -If you can't "Leave it Like You Found it", we can't have you
We basically have 2 rules here at The Ark. Rule #1: the party ends at 1am (nothing good ever happens after 1) and Rule #2: Leave it like you found it.
It's crazy, I've explained those 2 simple rules to every couple that has been here and each has said "of course, that goes without saying".
I doubt any of them would staple decorations to their walls, but they do it here.
When I asked the mom of one bride to staple her lights in the pine grooves of the ceiling, she outright said "No". She would staple the lights wherever she pleased.
We have firewood here that is specifically for the firepit or dry, seasoned hardwood that we use to heat our off-grid home for the winter. During our last wedding here I had one women tell me that as a guest she was entitled to burn any firewood she pleased.
So, if you can't treat my house like your home, please get married at some other corporate venue that has strict damage deposits.
With the right weather and a beautiful natural backdrop, an outdoor wedding can be one of the most picturesque, beautiful, and fun events to attend!
Even our road is beautiful!
100 year old barn photo op
Paugan Dam is 4 min away
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You seriously won't get photos like this anywhere else
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I love this video. I must have made it over 10 years ago. You can see how The Ark isn't fully stained on the outside and some of the windows don't have any trim. Inside the ceiling isn't enclosed and that crappy shear material is covering the wall. But EVERYONE is smiling ear to ear and having the best time. They're not worried about the chairs or any of that insignificant stuff. They're there to celebrate the couple and the creation of a new family. These are the weddings that are the most memorable and the most fun. And these are the types of couples that love getting married here.
What our clients say
The following wedding testimonials and referrals have been provided by couples who have celebrated their weddings here at Ark. So far we have a 100% referral rate!
Dear Mike and Monique,
Three months after our wedding we are still hearing friends rave about “The Best Wedding Ever!” Thank you so much for everything! We were able to have our dream wedding and actually afford it thanks to your beautiful and unique venue! Everyone kept asking us how we found such an amazing venue that was “so us”. Mike, you were a wonderful officiant and made our ceremony touching, light-hearted, and personal to us as a couple. We cannot express how great it is to still hear from friends that the canoe full of beer was the “coolest way to serve drinks at a wedding ever.” You made our wedding as stress free as possible with being able to set up the day before and take down the day after. Thank you for making our wedding the best day of our lives and putting up with our crazy friends! We feel kind of bad that every other wedding we ever go to now won’t come close to as awesome and fun and laidback as ours. We cannot recommend the Ark enough!
Cheers!
- Dave & Jess
Hi Mike, I’ve been meaning to write a gigantic thank you email since the wedding in August, but as you know, time can escape us. As not only our venue host, but also our officiant, you truly had an integral part in making our day spectacular. You always responded to the emails I sent (and I sent a lot!), you were always there when I needed you. You had the kind and caring and ‘do whatever you want!’ attitude that we needed as a host and officiant. The Ark is a beautiful place and our guests loved every inch of it, especially the animals, teepees and camping. Although we had torrential rain in the evening I know our guests had a blast. We didn’t look at any other venue once we saw the Ark in the fall, in all its glory. I don’t think there is any other venue that would have been able to suit our wants or needs as well as the Ark did.
If you would like to use any of the photos for your website from our wedding photos, please feel free to do so.
Kristin and Mason
Mike and Monique,
Guy and I sincerely thank you for helping us of host an amazing wedding at The Ark. You were very accommodating at every step of the process, and didn’t shy away from any request that we had. From helping to set up and tear down, making an emergency trip for more drinks, and even caring for one of our guests who was sick, nothing was a problem for you. The ceremony that you officiated was light-hearted, like I wanted, and touching, like Guy wanted. All of our guests had a great time, and nobody minded the 40 minute drive. The Ark was the perfect venue for our day, and we certainly recommend it to others.
Ian and Guy
Your Wedding, Your Way
You tell us what you want and we will make your dream day a reality. You get to use your ideas in creating your perfect wedding day...From an outdoor pig roast bonfire to a classic formal reception.